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Each summer, Chrysler Group plants around North American take a couple weeks off so that they can re-tool the facilities for the upcoming model year while also allowing the dealerships to sell off existing models sitting on lots but due to strong sales through the first four months of 2012 - several Chrysler Group plants will stay open through their scheduled downtime.

First and foremost, the Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit and the Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois will both completely skip their scheduled two week summer downtime.  Jefferson North builds the Dodge Durango and the Jeep Grand Cherokee while Belvidere currently builds the awesome new Dodge Dart alongside the Jeep Compass and Jeep Patriot.  The strong sales of the Durango, Grand Cherokee, Patriot and Compass require these two plants to stay open all summer - bolstered by the start of production of the new Dart.  Also, the Toluca Car Assembly Plant in Mexico will skip their summer downtime.  Toluca produces the Dodge Journey (and the Fiat Freemont) along with the compact Fiat 500.

The Halftime in America television ad featuring Clint Eastwood that ran during the Super Bowl struck a chord with American viewers, quickly becoming among the most popular commercials from the NFL's big game.  Now, the Chrysler Group has released the next stage of that campaign titled the Second Half in America - showing Chrysler vehicles being enjoyed by Americans who have recovered from tough times similar to those felt by the Chrysler Group brands.

Second Half in America is a set of four, 1-minute commercials; each of which focuses on one of the four Chrysler Group brands excluding Fiat.  Each of these commercials tells the tale of an American who has overcome some sort of personal adversity ranging from a dad returning home from serving overseas in the armed forces to spend time in his Challenger R/T with his son to a guy named Tommy who used his Ram Heavy Duty to help make ends meet during tough financial times with a voiceover done by Tommy's appreciative wife.  The other two commercials feature a dad showing his pride in his Chrysler 300-driving son and a young girl who is enjoying a ride in the new Jeep Liberty while facing the hardships of moving to a new area.

March 31^st marks the beginning of the 46^th annual Easter Jeep Safari in Moab Utah and just over a week ahead of the big offroading event, the folks at Chrysler have teased three of the unique concept vehicles coming to Moab. Each year, the Chrysler Group calls on help from the folks at the Mopar division to modify a handful of vehicles to catch the eye of show-goers while also being able to easily hold their own in the woods and for this year's show there will be at least three unique new concept vehicles. 

There have been no mentions of any Ram trucks coming to Moab but in past year, the Easter Jeep Safari has brought us awesome Ram concepts like the first RamRunner so it wouldn't be a huge shock if there were more than just these three concepts - whether they are more Jeeps, Ram trucks or maybe even a Dodge Durango.

During interviews with various sources at the Geneva Motor Show, Chrysler Group CEO Sergio Marchionne stated that the replacement for the Jeep Liberty - a currently unnamed vehicle expected to debut at the 2013 Detroit Auto Show - will be powered by a new 3.2L Pentastar V6 while also coming with a new 9-speed automatic transmission.

The new 3.2L Pentastar V6 will join the current 3.6L Pentastar that is offered in almost every product in the Dodge lineup shy of the Dart and the Caliber.  We can expect that the new 3.2L V6 will offer more than the 210 horsepower and 235lb-ft of torque produced by the current (and very old) 3.7L V6 in the Liberty while also offering superior fuel economy to that of the 2012 Liberty.  

This poor guy didn't even have a chance. Even with a three-second lead, the Cummins' powered Ram manages catch him at the end. Surely skill has something to do with this beat down, but it's hard to deny the ridiculous speed of that truck. If anything it's only more evidence that diesel does it. Check out the clip after the jump for some hot dodge-on-dodge racing action.

On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal published a piece stating that the well-known Hemi is being demoted, in favor of "greener" engines.
This seemed odd to me, considering how fuel efficient the MDS-equipped
Hemi has proven itself to be in the Dodge Charger, Challenger and Ram
trucks and as other media sources picked up the story, the rumors got
deep. This is made that much more unlikely to me by the fact that many
engine rumors for upcoming Chrysler vehicles center around new (often
bigger) Hemi engines.

Some sources state that the Hemi will be dropped from the Chrysler and Jeep lineup and that the Hemi would only remain in the Dodge and Ram
brand vehicles but rather than make assumptions, I contacted Chrysler
for more information on the future of the Hemi. Earlier today, I spoke
with Nick Cappa, a representative for Chrysler's Brand Newsroom, who had
this to say about the Hemi:

"The HEMI V8 is still
very much part of our future powertrain strategy and we're continually
improving its fuel economy. Badging is something that changes over time
and has little or nothing to do with powertrain system or its use in
future products. The HEMI name will remain with any vehicle the engine
is associated with. The 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee has a HEMI 5.7-liter V8
available but no badge on the exterior. HEMI is still on the engine
cover, in the press kit, in the owner's manual and in the hearts of
anyone who can appreciate the power and torque it delivers"

I brought you all a few images of the radical Mopar Jeep Lower Forty right before SEMA (click here to read the original article), with this Hemi powered JK wearing a unique body and 40" tires with the stock suspension setup. 

Mopar did this to show off the capabilities of the Jeeps standard suspension with just a little work-so long as you consider hacking apart your Jeep to make room for 40" tires a little work.

Sure, the Lower Forty might not be the ideal commuter vehicle, but it does make for one bad ass concept and in the end, it is a great deal more realistic than the twin Hemi powered Hurricane concept.